Global South-South Development Expo 2011
 

Solution Exchange Forum on Agriculture, Food Security and Capacity Development

Organized by FAO

Tuesday, 6 December 

09.00 -12.00 

Red Room 

FAO-HQ

Because of the great strides that have been made in agricultural production technology over the last half a century, it is possible to produce enough food to feed a growing world population of over 7 billion people today. Paradoxically, today the total number of undernourished in the world has not diminished but instead increased to nearly 1 billion. While new challenges like climate change, rising food prices and price volatility, the global financial and economic crises are certainly playing an important role in hampering progress in tackling food security in more recent years, it is widely accepted that the chronic under-investment in small-holder agriculture, food security and rural development over the last decades is one of the primary reasons behind this lack of progress in reducing levels of under nourishment.

The nearly half a billion small-scale producers, the majority of whom are women, and the millions of waged agricultural workers are particularly vulnerable to the natural and man-made shocks that are affecting with increasing frequency food systems around the world. While the world has the know-how to produce all the food that is needed for a growing population, progress will depend on our ability to significantly and sustainably increase investment in small-holder agriculture and programmes that provide opportunities for the large numbers of poor farmers in developing countries that have been by-passed by the economic and technological progress that has taken place elsewhere.

The Solution Exchange Forum on Agriculture, Food Security and Capacity Development will review and discuss successful capacity development initiatives.

The first segment of the forum will cover the three dimensions of capacity development, i.e. human resources capacity, organizational capacity and the enabling environment and include case studies related to land tenure, gender, information and communication technology, agricultural extension, micro-finance, and conservation agriculture.

The second segment of the forum will also discuss the experiences of China as a provider and Nigeria as a recipient of SSC support, highlighting modalities of cooperation, major achievements and challenges and future directions.

Agenda of the Solution Forum

Solution Forum Moderator: Ms. Xiangjun Yao, Director, Office of Knowledge, Research and Extension (OEK), FAO

09.00-09.10: Introduction of the Solution Forum programme, objectives and presenters by the moderator.

09.10-09.20: Introductory remarks on the role of South-South Cooperation in support of capacity development in the areas of food security, agriculture and rural development.
Mr. Abdul Kobakiwal, Chief of the Integrated Food Security Support Service, Technical Cooperation Department, FAO.

The first segment: Presentation of Solutions covering the three dimensions of Capacity Development (09.20-10.50)

Presentation 1: “The development of improved land tenure regulation and land rights in the Philippines”
by Mr. Henry Pacis, LAMP2 Deputy Executive Director, Departments of Environment and Natural Resources and Mr. Niño Raymond B. Alvina, Project Management Specialist of LAMP2, Department of Finance, Bureau of Local Government Finance of the Government of the Philippines. 

Presentation 2: “Addressing gender in the Family Farming programme in Brazil” by Ms. Andrea Lorena Butto Zarzar, Director Directorate of Policies for Rural Women and Quilombolas, Ministry of Agrian Development, brazil

Presentation 3: “Mobile telephony for rural development in Sri Lanka and India”
by Sriganesh Lokanathan, Senior Research Manager LIRNEasia from Sri Lanka

Presentation 4: “Role of Farmer Field Schools in Angola as an effective participatory extension methodology support of smallholder agricultural development”
by Mr. Ndambi Ndoki Cyprien, Farmer Field School master trainer from Congo (DRC)

Presentation 5: Case study on “How the warehouse receipt system is providing small-holders with improved access to micro-credit in Burkina Faso”
by Ms. Kambou Félicité, Director of Coopérative de Prestation des Services Agricoles (COOPSA)

Presentation 6: “How agricultural production systems can be made more sustainable through the introduction of “conservation agriculture” technologies”
by Mr. Brian Sims, former Director of the Overseas Division of Silsoe Research Institute

10.50-11.15: Plenary discussion on the presentations of the first segment

The second segment: Presentations from the perspective of providers and receivers of SSC support. (11.15-11.45)

Presentation 7: “How South-South Cooperation has been an important vehicle for capacity development in the context of Nigeria’s National Programme for Food Security”
by Mr. Bukar Tijani, Honourable Minister of State of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nigeria.

Presentation 8: The Chinese South-South Cooperation programme with FAO, supporting several countries” by Mr. Qu Sixi, Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, China.

11.45-11.55: Plenary discussion on the presentations of the second segment

11.55-12.00 Closing remarks